At Passport Seva, e-governance on vacation as screens and counters rule the roost

The so-called e-governance model seems to have completely bypassed the passport office at Ghaziabad

Getting a passport made or renewed would be as smooth as a Google search, I had hoped. Filling the online form and uploading it on the Passport Seva site, under the ministry of external affairs, wasn’t all that tough. The steady flow of SMSes and emails after that reminding the applicant – me, in this case – of the date and time of appointment had only helped build up my levels of confidence in their competence. 

On the day of appointment for my passport’s renewal, I was as nervous as I would be before an exam, checking and rechecking the documents required, but not quite knowing what lay ahead. Before I start telling my story, I must make it known that my centre was Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and experience here may not match that in another city. 

Half a dozen messages delivered on my smartphone asked me to reach the passport office half an hour before the appointment time, which was 2.15 p.m. So, I was at the gate sharp at 1.45 p.m., where the guard promptly refused me entry, saying it was lunch time. By the time I reached the main hall with a brown-cover file handed to me by a staff member after the first screening of documents, it was already 2:30 p.m. I was told to wait, without any indication of how long it would be. Soon I learnt that applicants who had been called at 12 noon were still at it. 

It was almost 3.30 p.m. when my name was announced and the same brown-cover file was handed over again with a coupon number on top – I was told to track the LCD screens displaying coupon numbers and counters. Oh, such joy at spotting my coupon number on one of the screens! 

The man at Counter-A was checking my residence proof. Happy to find a flaw, he told me my e-bills for post-paid mobile phone (one of the address proofs listed in the official website of Passport Seva) were not good enough and that I needed to get it stamped at the telecom company’s store. I offered another set of address proofs – electricity bill receipts. To that, I was told that I must produce bills and not receipts, despite the fact that both had my address. So much for paperless office, e-governance, smart cities and of course ease of doing business, I thought to myself and tried telling the man before me some of that also. He, of course, was unmoved, and asked me to come back with the required proof. Will I have to go through the same process again? He smiled at me, for the first time, and said ‘Yes, process must be followed.’

I was directed to Counter B next, where I would get a date for the next meeting. I had to look at the screen again to spot my coupon number. In the Counter B ‘holding’ area, some 80 to 100 people had chairs to sit and another 100 or more just hung around, leaning against walls while some even sat on the floor in desperation. I was told by my fellow sufferers that my number would come in another two hours or so because some people there had been waiting since 10-11 a.m. The numbers that flashed hardly followed any sequence. It’s ad hoc, a staff member said proudly.                                

 I met the deputy passport officer to tell her my story and about the hundreds others who waited patiently for their turn all morning. It was past 5:30 p.m. already and the lady DPO allowed me to leave after depositing the brown-cover file at the exit gate, saying I could come back within a few days and complete the process. ‘Lots of people have gone on leave,’ was her explanation for the long waits.  

I began my journey early the following day. After collecting my ‘pending’ file, I was sent straight to Counter B, entirely bypassing Counter A, which gave an odd sense of achievement. But my coupon number just wouldn’t flash even after 90 minutes. Two days of constant monitoring of screens was now starting to hurt the eyes and the neck. When I became more demanding and asked the staff about the quantum of wait, I was sent to an officer from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the IT services giant that has helped the passport service go online. 

The TCS man helped me with a ‘better’ coupon number and finally my turn came to meet the Counter B person. Well, all he told me was that I must get the electricity bills (my address proof) scanned from Counter A. 

So much for my happiness at skipping Counter A. 

But before going to Counter A, I had to, of course, first go back to watching the screens again to track my coupon number every second. The Counter A man scanned the bills and also vented his frustration at I’m not sure what exactly. I was sent back to Counter B, but not before some more monitoring of the LCD screens. 

Satisfied with the scanned documents, the Counter B man now cancelled out my old passport and sent me to Counter C. Yes, yes, after tracking the coupon number screens yet again! Screen is God here, and I had reached Counter C, which also meant end of screen watching.

I hadn’t felt this light in a long, long time as I did after shedding that brown-cover file at the exit gate on Day Two. I celebrated with a cafe mocha before heading home. Over to police verification now. Until then, I read the umpteen messages from the passport authorities, giving me regular file tracking updates.